Sweden’s TeliaSonera has abandoned the disposal of its Spanish operator Yoigo because it did not receive a high enough offer.
“We have been prepared to divest it if we were offered a price which fully reflects [Yoigo’s] future potential,” said…
Sweden’s TeliaSonera has abandoned the disposal of its Spanish operator Yoigo because it did not receive a high enough offer.
“We have been prepared to divest it if we were offered a price which fully reflects [Yoigo’s] future potential,” said CEO Per-Arne Blomquist. “As this requirement has not been met we have discontinued the sales process.”
Reports of the disposal of Yoigo began last summer and since then Vodafone and Orange have been persistently touted as likely buyers of the value operator.
In its Q3 results call for 2012 the then CEO Lars Nyberg said: “We have the intention of divesting Yoigo… [Yoigo] are performing reasonably well – its good for them and good for the buyer…We have made up our mind.”
Yoigo is the smallest network operator in Spain – it has just over 6% market share – trailing Telefonica, Vodafone and Orange. Yoigo offers comparatively cheap services and appears to be benefitting from Spaniards tightening their belts due to the country’s continuing economic woes. In January a record 633,616 subscribers switched operators, according to the regulator the CMT. The general trend is seeing subscribers move away from Telefonica and Vodafone and look to cheaper options such as MVNOs and Yoigo.
Between the end of 2011 and the end of 2012 Yoigo grew its customer base by over 500,000 subscribers, from 2.7 million to more than 3.2 million according to the CMT. Last year Yoigo achieved EBITDA of €75m and its net sales grew by 12.5%.
